Oh, dear. 1998? I remember it like it was yesterday, except for the parts I've forgotten.

Stratford did a very effective production of Much Ado featuring Brian Bedford and Martha Henry not long ago. They're quite past the normal age for the characters, but it worked (especially the moment where they read each others love letters, but have to put on reading glasses first).

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2: All we know for certain (?) is that they are both "Brian" and have goatees. This time through was the first I'd noticed the names being the same, but I made the same assumption as jodietwin2, that the Brian we see later has gone from playing Laertes to becoming something of an overweight hack.…

Iseult: I thought that might be true, but I can't find the alternate version in any of my editions.

Sorry, could have been clearer. It's a deliberate misquote (should be "Oh, my offense is rank …") but a very subtle one (this is my third or fourth time through the series and this is the first time I heard it). Yet it also seemed a bit out of place.

As you can probably imagine, he's a remarkable Cyrano as well. Not that I think he's wasted in other efforts but, you're right, he's at less than full power when he can't use that voice and body to full effect.

Sometimes it's like that when you're watching from offstage, though, when someone for whom you're rooting  but you know isn't all that great suddenly comes through and exceeds your expectations. I've waxed rhapsodic over a mediocre actor in a better-than-mediocre performance. (That's part of the ephemeral thing.)

Full productions on film or video? It's hard to beat Olivier's. I have a friend who highly recommends Campbell Scott's, although I've never caught up to it.

When Geoffrey and Ellen are sharing a drink after the rehearsal is cancelled, did I hear right? Did Geoffrey say "Oh, my *office* is rank …"

I think Basil comes back in Season 3 to do some filmed interviews …

I've got the 2003 single-season DVD but I imagine it must be on all the sets. A few of the bloopers are hilarious, and the deleted/extended scenes are quite good, although you can usually see why they were the ones on the cutting room floor. The extended version of the stage manager's "%#$ you all!" speech is great.

There's a deleted scene where the cast is rehearsing
outdoors and they start chanting "Speak the speech! Speak the speech!"
to Jack in order to get him to stop doing it all in his own words. He
responds with a nice "Get thee to a nunnery" scene; then, when
the lawn sprinklers come on unexpectedly, he launches into Lear's…

Never at Stratford, as far as I know. I think the original poster was confusing the Winnipeg appearance.

There was a long-running academic dispute over "Was Hamlet truly mad or only feigning madness?". The answer seems to be "Yes."

Replying to the reply that "the guy singing them actuall wrote all of them". No, they were written by (different combinations of) Lisa Lambert and Bob Martin (lyrics) and Greg Morrison (music). With Don McKellar, the team behind The Drowsy Chaperone.

Many of the company members at the Stratford Festival (upon which the New Burbage Festival is based) are transplanted Brits.